Thought excercise: Who are the best rappers to come out in the past decade?

[golfalphabravoecho]

I've been having this argument with my friends for about three days now about the "underground" and the golden era of rap music, the top 5-10 emcees never change but that doesn't mean there's no room for newcomers to be recognized. So if you had to rank your top 10 list of emcees from the past 10 years what would that list look like?

The criteria:

1.) First album MUST have come out between calendar year 2003 and today.
2.) Must have more than one album's worth of material to consider.
3.) Mixtapes don't count as debut albums but do count as references for accomplishments.


I give a lot of credit for popularity and relevance so my original list looks like this:

Kanye West
Drake
Rick Ross
Killer Mike
Game
Lupe Fiasco
Young Jeezy
Big K.R.I.T.
Kendrick Lamar
J-Cole
Saigon


But when I think of someone as a "great rapper" or "top emcee"; using the same people the list looks like this:


Killer Mike
Lupe Fiasco
Kendrick Lamar
Drake
Big K.R.I.T.
J-Cole
Game
Rick Ross
Kanye West
Saigon


Of course it's not inclusive, here's a couple of also-rans

Flo-Rida
50 Cent
Wale
B.o.B.


Plus I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

 

[dt43]

Best rapper would be Lupe, no one else I'd really consider there.

Best overall hiphop artist is 'Ye of course.

 

[25thhour]

^ What he said

And y'all really really hype Kendrick so bad, I'll never understand it :x

 

[golfalphabravoecho]

It's not fair to dismiss Killer Mike especially from a lyrical standpoint and Drake's ascension can not be denied.

And I mean Kendrick Lamar is a good rapper. I'm surprised that folks find it hard to just admit that.


And it's a thought exercise, it's meant to make you think, I mean over the course of 10 years is Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco ALL the rap game has to offer?

 

[25thhour]

I'll be the first to admit Kendrick is a good rapper. He may be the best at stuffing as many bars into one beat as humanly possible but the kid shouldn't be on ANY best rapper list imo.

One other thing I'd like to note is how versatile Ross is. I think dudes flowing ability is slept on and I'm by no means a fan of him but a spade is a spade and dude can literally jump on anything and give someone a run for their money.

I'll take Kanye as a whole over pretty much any of the new cats.

 

[remi23]

how can you forget Elzhi

 

[golfalphabravoecho]

how can you forget Elzhi

Because he's never done anything memorable... I'd argue that Elzhi has made 0 impact on the game.

 

[36 ounces]

Drizzy is the LL of this generation

 

[golfalphabravoecho]

So you can't come up with 10 rappers from the last 10 years to put in a list? Maybe the game is doomed...